Jury split over verdict in Spartak fan murder case

October 26, 2011, 17:05 UTC+3The jury will have to vote on the proof of the evidence against the defendants, and in case of the 50-50 vote they will be presumed innocent

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MOSCOW, October 26 (Itar-Tass) — Jurors at the Moscow City Court were unable to pass a unanimous decision in the case over the murder of Yuri Volkov, a fan of the Spartak football club, in central Moscow in 2010.

The jury will have to vote on the proof of the evidence against the defendants, and in case of the 50-50 vote they will be presumed innocent.

Also, the jury will decide if the defendants deserve clemency. Jurors have already deliberated for three hours and might request a pause.

Yuri Volkov, 22, was killed in a fight in central Moscow on July 10, 2010. The investigators said two groups of youngsters, numbering three and eight people, clashed in the Chistye Prudy area. "The fight was motivated by ‘personal dislike’," the police said.

Volkov was fatally stabbed and died in an ambulance. Another two persons were hospitalized.

Charges were brought against two Chechnya natives: Akhmedpasha Aidayev (who is accused of murder) and Bekkhan Ibragimov (accused of hooliganism and malicious infliction of harm to health). Both deny their guilt saying Spartak fans had dragged them into the fight and that they had had no knives.

The suspects were checked on polygraph. "I can tell that the results of the polygraph tests are not in the defendants' favor," a lawyer told Tass earlier.

The trial over the murder of Volkov was held behind closed doors. The decision was made by the presiding judge after the injured parties complained they had been threatened.

On October 28, verdicts are expected at the trials over the murder of another Spartak fan – Yegor Sviridov and the ensuing mass disturbances in Manezhnaya Square.